


Serrice Ice Brandy

by missema



Series: Allyse Shepard, Space Cadet [5]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alcohol, Drunk Sex, F/M, Memories, Theft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-16
Updated: 2012-02-16
Packaged: 2017-10-31 07:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/341274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missema/pseuds/missema
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a visit to receive new orders from Anderson, Kaidan Alenko fondly recalls the time Allyse Shepard "borrowed" Dr. Chakwas's bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Serrice Ice Brandy

  
  
Kaidan stepped into Anderson's spacious office, an unknown anxiety tensing his muscles and making him jittery.  He didn't know why he'd been called here, but the whole thing felt suspicious.  The last few missions he'd gone on were classified, they felt like tests, but for what, he didn't know.  
  
"Admiral."  
  
"Sit down, Kaidan."  Anderson said, watching him bounce around nervously on the balls of his feet.  He put down the datapad he'd been looking at when Lt. Commander Alenko entered and cursed himself after displaying the contents by accident, remembering a moment too late.   
  
Shepard's picture was prominently displayed on it, an article about a statue on Mindoir commissioned in her honor.  It wasn't the first, they had a plaque for her, after she'd won her metal defending Elysium, and she'd requested leave to go back and be at the ceremony.  Though she didn't know anyone that resettled the place, everyone she grew up with there was either dead or captured by the batarians, she had become a hometown hero to the new batch of colonials.  Anderson's fingers swept towards the off button, but it was too late.  Kaidan's face was stony, eyes glued to the tiny picture of Allyse Shepard on the screen.   
  
He knew about the two of them, and approved, but didn't mention that last bit to Kaidan, it seemed almost unfair to tell the man who still visibly grieved for her.  Anderson had been something between a friend and a mentor to the young woman, making him protective of her, but not fatherly.  There was never any reason not to be proud of her, in life and in death, but now, he wasn't sure if she was either.  He'd heard rumors, impossible to believe of anyone besides Shepard, but his Cerberus contact had gone cold and wouldn't confirm or deny anything.  
  
Kaidan took the datapad, easing it out from Anderson's distracted fingers.  His dark eyes roamed over the words, lingering on the picture of her face.  It was a standard Alliance picture, it could have been taken any place, any time during her service.  She was looking straight into the camera, grey eyes unwavering, her reddish brown hair cut short and ragged at the ends, tapering against the bronzed skin of her neck.  There was a scar on her cheek, only slightly visible in the picture, a souvenir from a fight that happened before her time in the Alliance.  Across the table, Kaidan sighed heavily, and after taking one last glance, he pushed the datapad back at Anderson.  
  
"Picture looks old."  He finally said, unable to formulate a more articulate response.  
  
"They're all old now."  
  
"I guess they are."  Kaidan conceded.  His thoughts were elsewhere, drifting back in time to be with Allyse.  "Did you know she could pick locks?"  He asked Anderson, smiling as he began to reminisce.  
  
"What do you mean, hacking them with her omni-tool?"  Anderson asked, indulging Kaidan and himself, just a little before they got to business.  
  
"No.  Well, she could do that too, but she actually had those old style metal lockpicks.  Said that on Mindoir, growing up they used the old locks on some things, you know and that you can hear the tumblers click when you've hit the right spot.  She used to keep lockpicks on her because she wound up picking the padlock to a cellar once, just to see what was in it.  That's where she hid when the batarians hit."  
  
Anderson chuckled, thinking of Allyse.  "I can believe that.  She showed up after a shore leave with a coat once, it was more pockets than actual garment.  Bragging about finally having enough space for all of her stuff.  Ugliest damn coat I ever saw."   
  
"Chakwas used old locks like that on the Normandy."  Kaidan continued, undeterred by Anderson's interruption.  "She had a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy that might have gone missing."  Kaidan said, laughing.  Anderson joined in, remembering her wicked humor.  Stealing a bottle of brandy just sounded like something Allyse would have found funny or done on a dare.  
  
At the mention of the brandy, Kaidan was swept into another memory.  Allyse's quietly exuberant giggles as she whispered to him in the mess.  Her face was flushed with exhilaration, she looked a little proud of herself.  
  
"Kaidan.  _Kaidan_.  Come here.  Shit.  Stand right there, otherwise someone might see."   
  
"What are you doing, Allyse?"   
  
"Trying to show you something, but you're terrible at this.  Alright, stop looking so concerned and just glance down."  She instructed.  Between them was a bottle of very old, very dusty liquor.  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"Chakwas's Serrice Ice Brandy.  Wanna get drunk in my quarters?"  Allyse waggled her eyebrows at him, knowing that he was off-duty until the next afternoon.  
  
"God, tell me you didn't steal that."  He exclaimed in a voice louder than he intended for it to be.  She hurriedly shushed him, waving her arm about in agitation, glancing furtively around the mess as she did.  
  
"Tell the whole ship why don't you?"  She hissed.  "I borrowed it.  If she notices it's missing, I'll get her another."  Allyse shot a crooked grin at him, looking at once too tempting and mischievous.  "So, Lieutenant, my question still stands, do you want to get drunk with me or not?"  
  
"Is that an order, Commander?"  His words had a playful lilt, his mind made up to accompany her back to her quarters well before she'd shown him the brandy.  
  
"If it helps, consider it so."  She shrugged, never really getting into playing on the rank difference between them that so titillated Kaidan.   
  
After the first glass, the both of them were red in the face and laughing, sitting too close together, limbs touching, and he could feel her heart beating beneath the uniform they both wore when she leaned in for the first kiss.  In his memory he could almost feel her warm skin beneath his hands again, her beautiful body warm with life, excited and reckless energy fueled by liquor.  He remembered peppering her collar with kisses and she'd run her fingers through his hair repeatedly, going on about the way it felt in a drunken, poetic rambling.   
  
The next morning he'd woken up achy in her bed, next to her naked form with one arm dangling over the edge, a swirl of memories filled with hazy spots, but a pleasant tingle to his scratched skin, the biotics taking the edge off his hangover.  Allyse was no biotic and hadn't been so lucky, the alcohol working its way out of her the old fashioned way, she claimed that she could feel every breath she took in her throbbing head.  It hadn't stopped them from making love again, languid and tender, the two of them rolling together, unhurried, as if there were no duties waiting outside the door.  
  
Color flooded his cheeks as he pulled himself out of the recollection, aware that Anderson was determinedly not looking at him, giving him privacy.  Kaidan cleared his throat loudly before speaking again.  
  
"What did you need, Admiral?"  
  
The dreamy, lost look on Alenko's face almost made the Admiral want to tell him about Shepard, but that would come in time.  It was best to do it once he understood the whole threat, once he confirmed that she really was alive.  
  
"You've got new orders, and a promotion to Staff Commander.  Congratulations."  Anderson offered.   
  
A pang of loss hit Kaidan again, as he realized that this was his second promotion without Shepard, another thing they could have shared together and celebrated.  But she was gone, gone for good.  The new Commander nodded at Anderson, his expression going back to the neutral one he normally wore.  
  
"Have you ever heard of the colony on Horizon?"  Anderson asked, leaning forward as he spoke in a quieter voice.  
  
On Omega, Allyse Shepard bore glowing, angry scars on her reconstructed face as she walked into Afterlife and bought Dr. Chakwas a new bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy.


End file.
